The Devil's Advocate
by Lana Archer
Summary: Kai doesn't leave Bonnie behind, in fact, he insists they return together. Bonnie doesn't understand why until it's too late and she becomes Mystic Falls' newest villain. What will Damon do to bring her back?
1. Chapter 1

**Note:** _New Story_ time! If anyone would like to know how HBGHGB ends, you're more than welcome to inbox me as I have a clear image of it in my mind and will be more than happy to send you the 'epilogue' of it as I've decided to cut my losses and move on despite my love of the story. _Anyways_ , this one is pretty simple: Kai doesn't leave Bonnie behind and when they make it back to real-time Trystic Falls (omg, I should totally write something with that as the title, lol, as I was saying) Bonnie is not who they know her to be. Here's why (enjoy) XO

* * *

 **Chapter One: Unwind**

A few truths about Bonnie Bennett:

1) She dies a lot.

2) She's a self-sacrificing idiot.

3) She has an awful relationship with her own magic.

4) She's in love with Damon Salvatore.

Looking at her now it was as clear as day on her face. She was besotted with him. I'd had an idea of their love (if you could even call it that) after watching them as long as I had; which is exactly why I'd been banking on her choosing to save him when it came down to it. I needed her to myself and Bonnie being Bonnie and Damon being Damon; gave me what I wanted on a silver, blood-spattered platter.

She was staring at me again, warily; I couldn't blame her for it either. Not smiling the way I was. Her stomach was still bleeding some and I'd offered to help her out but she'd screamed so loud that it'd left a ringing in my ears. I'd taken a risk when she'd passed out, driving her to the hospital.

Not because she'd misconstrue my sudden kindness, but because I hadn't really driven much in my life. Even without another person in the realm you never really knew what I was capable with my erratic gear-shift tendencies. Point being, I needed her to trust me. Not with her life or anything like that, just enough to get the job done.

"You need to put dressing on that." I held up the wads that I had in my hand, waving them slowly at her. "The last thing we want is for you to bleed out or get it infected."

"Right, because you worrying about the wound **you** gave me is going to put me at ease." She bit out through her teeth. I liked her like this, very promising.

"I'm not trying to put you at ease," I explained, "I'm only pointing out the obvious. You're cut, the wound is fresh. I was busy cleaning it when you threw me off of you." She scowled, winced as she moved upright and, shoving away my waiting hand with the dressing, edged over to the pile and took some others instead. Her eyes kept rushing to and from my face as she lifted her shirt, probably too scared to turn her back on me, covering the gash with squares of the thing meshy fabric. Lesser of two evils I supposed, pleased because it meant I got to see more of her.

Perverted, probably, but it's literally been years, who could blame me? Her angry, blood-shot eyes answered that question easily. I held out the tape and she snatched it away from me with a growl. "You're pretty tetchy for someone who's powerless in their current situation."

"Tetchy, yes," she grumbled, "but I'm not powerless."

"Technically we're at an impasse," she quirked her brow at me, "You can thank the Salvatore library for my outbursts of eloquence."

"I'd rather not think of all the times you were ghosting around Damon and me in the Boarding House, thank you." She pulled her shirt back down after making doubly sure that everything was as it should be. You'd think she'd trust the way I cleaned wounds; I'd caused plenty to know well enough how to clean one thoroughly.

"Why? It makes everything come full circle when you do." Her nostrils flared and she exhaled through them; a sound of exasperation and bone deep exhaustion. But I knew she had more in her than even _she_ was aware. Girls like her were a dream for boys like Damon and I. "Takers" if you will. Bonnie Bennett was a philanthropist at heart; she couldn't draw the line even if she wanted to. Her dying breath was something she'd given countless times already – I just had to show her where the lines really were for her. In that there were none at all.

To say I was excited was an understatement. I hadn't had this much fun since I slaughtered my family. God I was a mess.

"We need each other." I said to her, slowly so that I could gauge her reaction. "Whether you believe me or not my intention is to leave her with you."

"I don't buy it." Bonnie snapped with her arms crossed. Good, she still had some sense in her.

"I don't expect you to," I said. "I never want you trust me." At least not like this, I thought, "All I want you to know for sure is that when you leave here, it'll be with me."

"No way." I grinned at her vehemence. "I'd rather stay trapped her for an eternity than bring you into the world with me." I stood up slowly, my chuckle low and unsurprised.

"You say that now," I looked right at her, "But that's the last thing you want. You think what you did was brave Bonnie, but it was stupid. Perhaps the single most idiotic thing you've ever done." I held up a finger and snickered, "No, I take that back. That would be falling in love with Damon Salvatore huh?" I couldn't stifle my chortle if I tried. "Don't deny it," I waved a hand, "There's no one but me to hear the truth. You could scream it at the top of your lungs and it wouldn't matter." I knew she hear the double meaning in my words.

"I could kill you." I shrugged.

"It wouldn't matter long." I reminded her. "And you and I both know that you need me or you would have been wailing on me already." I mirrored her stance and crossed my arms, leaning back against the metal gurney behind me. "That ascendant isn't going to fix itself." She frowned. "And you and I both know I already have some of your blood." Her jaw clenched. "So I'd save your 'save-the-world' speech for some other time, because you and I both know…you're as powerless as the day you got here."

"I'm going to kill you." I sighed happily; the thought of her attempts distracted me momentarily. "I don't know when, but I will."

"Promises, promises Bennett." I tisked, angering her, "Come on. Let's go back to the house. We have work to do." I stood upright and stared openly at her. "I told you, don't need you to trust me." I reminded her. "But I'm not going to do anything to jeopardise getting out of here." I took a step closer. "And neither should you."

"You just shot me in the stomach with an arrow, I'm not going anywhere with you!" She all but snarled.

"See, I knew you'd get all pissy with me." I clicked my tongue at her. "That's why I siphoned pretty much all of your magic while you played dead." The dread in her eyes was instant and it almost made me giddy. "But like I said, when you leave here. It will be with me." Cue the confusion.

"Why not just leave?" She asked. "Why take me with you?"

"Aw, Bon," I cooed, with a grin, "It's 'cause I like you. I don't know I feel like this could be mutually beneficial."

"What would a psychopath whose spent years in isolation for killing his family know anything about what's _mutually beneficial_?" She snarled.

"You're right." I moved closer to her, liking how she shrank under my gaze, "Smart girl that you are," I almost patted her on the head but I felt that would have been pushing it a bit. "But also wrong. I could help you as much as you're about to help me."

"Doubtful," she remained obstinate, "Very doubtful."

"Here's some facts then," I said holding up fingers to count off of," One, I'm not going to kill you. Two, I have your magic, so unless you feel like kicking it old school you're not going to kill me; for very long anyway. Three, we're going home and we're going together." She was quiet. "It's the lesser of two evils Bon-Bon, you get to go home to your…whatever they are and I get to kill the rest of my coven." She grimaced at my glee. "It's that or an eternity with me breathing down your neck and making sure you never get a wink of sleep for the rest of your miserable life." I let enough malice and promise flash in my eyes as I held her gaze and saw the exact moment when she gave in. Good, there was hope for her yet.

"Damon's going to kill you." I bit my lip to keep the bellowing laughter from bubbling out of my throat.

"I don't doubt that he'll try," I admitted, "But even he's not that stupid."

"…What exactly is your plan?" She stammered. I rubbed my hands together; finally we were getting to the good part.

"Well, you know when a man and woman loathe each other very much…" She narrowed her eyes as I began rambling off to distract her.

* * *

 **Mystic Falls**

Damon was beside himself. Everything had turned to shit, and that was really saying something coming from him. He was stumbling through the cemetery after Liz's funeral, drunk and bemoaning his existence as he was want to do. Just once, he wanted something to go right. Just once he wanted to be reassured that the Universe was vacationing from smiting him at every turn.

God he missed Bonnie. She'd know what to do, or at least have the right words to soothe him and pull him back from his impending hysteria. As he thought her name he heard her voice. Rolling his eyes inwardly he glared at the bottle of bourbon in his hands, wondering if it too was suddenly conspiring against him. He focused his hearing and heard it again. Saying his name.

"Bonnie?" He gasped, spinning around; trying to hone in on the location it was coming from. He didn't dare get his hopes up, not really, not yet.

"Damon." There it was again. He could feel it, his dead little heart, grabbing at the shreds of hope being tossed his way. "Damon, turn around." He did. And there she was.

"…Bonnie?" She blinked away her tears and smiled at him. He felt the tightness in his chest from weeks of helplessness and disorientation unwinds at the sight of her. Without thinking he sped to her. Something stopped him and pulled him away and before he could even frown the last thing he ever wanted to hear again assaulted his ears.

Kai. Kai was laughing.

When he looked back at Bonnie everything about her was different. Her clothes were the same, the sallow hue she'd gotten in the Prison World still there. Her short, wavy hair still framed her heart-shaped face beautifully. But her eyes. Those green eyes he'd seen just about every emotion reflected in were dead. Utterly lifeless and hollow. Even the colour had paled since the two seconds it had taken from him to look to Kai and back. "…Bonnie?" He breathed. That's when she started laughing too, an odd cold sound. So unlike her. Kai walked over to her as Damon remained suspended in the air. He stopped just shy of standing on top of the smaller Bennett witch and it made Damon's skin crawl watching her lack of reaction to their proximity. Dread, dread was in his chest and it was swallowing any relief he'd been feeling in greedy bites.

"Hello Damon." Even her voice, it was wrong and hollow. Kai was grinning as he looked down at her. When the Siphon's eyes returned to Damon's they were alight with that same unhinged levity that the vampire remembered.

"'Hello Damon'" Kai parroted her, thoroughly amused at the success of his plan and Damon's reaction to his Bonnie. "She's perfect right?"

"What did you _do_?!" Damon half-screamed. Too many possibilities were lighting up the panic stations in his mind and he wouldn't put anything past Kai. Kai threw his arm over her shoulder casually as he tapped a finger to his chin, pretending to think. Bonnie's eyes moved to him while Damon's was locked on her face.

"Well, it took a lot of convincing if you could call it that," Kai began, "Actually, I almost killed her trying to get it right. Not on purpose or anything," he bugged his eyes innocently, "She just put up one _hell_ of a fight." Bonnie's lips were curled up into a small smile as she watched him recount the story to Damon. Like he hadn't made her life hell before leaving the Prison World. "I mean, even without her magic, she is one warrior of a woman, you know?" Damon did know, and he also knew that it ended the way it always did for Bonnie was brave – she paid the ultimate price. "Anyways, so the plan was never to hurt Bonnie, I couldn't…I mean, look at her," Damon was, "She's the perfect candidate." Kai turned to Bonnie then, and Damon felt ill at the traces of affection in the bastard's eyes as he looked down at her. He ran a finger over her chin and seemed to forget what he was doing for a second before he cleared his throat and looked at Damon. Who'd been yelling the entire time. Pulling his hand away from Bonnie he waved it at Damon. "And my plan is pretty solid too, see, I tweaked our little Bon-Bon here a bit to make sure I had the insurance I needed to get what I wanted done."

"And that is?" The elder Salvatore was at his wits end.

"To ruin all of your lives and kill my family?" He scoffed like it had been the most obvious answer in the world. "And Bonnie is on board aren't you sweetheart?" The witch hummed happily, as dead as her eyes were.

"Bonnie!" Damon yelled. "Bonnie, what the hell is going on?"

"What's going on Damon," she turned to him, regarding him with all the disdain he'd never again imagined he'd be seeing from her, "Is that I'm here to kill you." The word 'kill' was accompanied with a sharp aneurysm that seemed to curdle Damon's grey matter and liquefy it, he felt the blood pouring out his nose almost instantly. His screams bounced off of the quiet of the cemetery around them.

What the hell was happening?

* * *

 **Stay excellent**


	2. Chapter 2

**Note:** Unedited

* * *

 **Chapter Two: Indifference**

Damon could feel the difference in her magic; in the way she was using it on him.

She was going to kill him. And he had no idea _why_.

He just knew he was going to die trying to choke out her name, and what a way to go that would be.

"Not now." Those two words swallowed up all of Damon's pain and dropped him unceremoniously to the floor. A hoarse cry bubbled through his mouthful of blood and carved way for his desperate gasps of air. He heard a foot step towards him and then Kai spoke again. "Bonnie." Like a father scolding a child. "I said not _now_."

"Why not?" She asked, so sincerely that it unnerved Damon more than the fact that Kai had just saved his life. "Why can't I kill him?" She went on, "I want to. I _need_ to."

"I know that," Kai was so gentle as he urged her to understand, Damon's head rolled to the side and as his vision cleared he grew sick to his stomach. "But it isn't his time yet, you know that." Kai had a grip on her elbow, slowly turning her away from Damon and to him. When she faced him albeit reluctantly, he cupped her cheek. "You know what the plan is."

"I know what the plan is." She repeated robotically.

"Damon needs to stay alive…for now." Kai said, enunciating everything like they had some kind of language barrier.

"For now." She echoed. Bonnie's eyelashes fluttered as she looked at him. "Where do you want me to put him?" She asked, stepping closer to him. Damon wheezed, trying in vain to locate his motor functions. Kai's jaw clenched at Bonnie's proximity, subtly so. She put her hand on his chest and tilted her head. "…Kai?" She prompted him when he did nothing but stare at her. With a quick detour to her mouth and back up to her eyes the warlock cleared his throat. He put his hand over hers and slowly moved it away, smiling to dissuade her frown.

"Your Grams' house is best, I think." He said but she shook her head.

"Stefan has access to my house and hers." Bonnie said seriously, "We need somewhere more clandestine."

"I'll revoke any and all invitations to the house, besides, technically you were both dead and now you're back so," pleasant shrug, "Semantics aside, we should be fine."

"Okay." She turned back to Damon who had only just truly come to and blinked owlishly at him. "Bye, Damon."

"Bo –" She snapped his neck before he could finish.

* * *

When Elena woke up Stefan was hovering over her looking the way he always did. She frowned as he helped her up off of the floor.

"What happened?" She grumbled before it all came rushing back to her. "Oh, no. Where is she?" Her dark eyes were wild and wide with concern. Caroline had snapped her neck and fled.

"She's gone." Stefan said sombrely, "We need to find her. We need to get her back." Nodding, Elena swallowed, still trailing her finger over her neck. Still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened and where they'd start.

"She turned it off, Stefan." Elena said, feeling her tears rising up to greet him, "She flipped her switch. She was never going to try and mourn her mother."

"Explains how she held it together today," He said. "I should have known better, I should have –"

"Been honest with her about you felt?" She filled in for him. He looked at her then, a measured gaze, gauging how far into the conversation she'd try to delve with him.

"We don't have time for this, we need to find her before she does something reckless." Elena nodded.

"I'll call Damon."

* * *

Kai and Bonnie were walking through the streets of Mystic Falls when she found them.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Caroline's voice cut through Kai's monologue about cheese like an icy wind. Bonnie turned slowly to regard her life-long friend.

"Aren't you supposed to be trying to find a way to fix that?" The witch countered, her face entirely devoid of what the humanity-less vampire had been expecting from her.

"I'm not a very good friend I guess." The blonde was impassive and almost _bored_. Her gaze shifted to Kai. "Who's that."

"Kai." Bonnie said blandly, "I was stuck with him in the Prison World."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Kai looked between them as their conversation dipped into an expectant silence.

"This is really weird," he mused, "I mean, when I heard you talk about her, this was not what I expected. Like, at all."

"Her humanity's off I think," Bonnie said conversationally as she looked up at him. "I guess I wasn't the only one having a tough go of it." She looked back at Caroline. "What happened to you? Did Elena finally drive you to the brink?" The vampire scoffed and crossed her arms, her hip jutting out as she rolled her eyes.

"No," she sighed, "My mom died. The funeral was today." She sounded inconvenienced at best. Bonnie's brows rose at the new information but she remained unmoved. "So, what's your deal? I expected crying or at least a hug."

"I don't want to hug you," Bonnie said matter-of-factly, "But I do have the sudden urge to kill you, I think." Caroline sized her up but then something shifted in Bonnie's expression, "But you're not my Caroline, you're not my friend like this, so I guess I don't care?"

"Good," Caroline said, "I really like these shoes and I wasn't about to scuff them for nothing." Bonnie hummed distractedly before she tiled her head at the vampire. Slowly she cleared the space between the two of them, waving a hand at Kai's loud 'uhm' as he tried to persuade her not to do whatever it was she was thinking of doing. Caroline frowned a bit as Bonnie scoured her face. With one final disdainful flicker of her eyes over the blonde's face she stepped back.

"You really turned it off didn't you?" Bonnie asked. Caroline's eyes narrowed. "So what's your plan here, Forbes?"

"Stay this way for a year," the blonde waved a hand lazily between them, "Maybe kill a few people, let off some steam."

"Kill people?" She hummed at Bonnie's question. "Like who?"

"Anyone who stands in my way." Bonnie's smile was slow and eerie, piquing the interest of the dead girl in front of her.

"Sound familiar?" She twisted at her torso to look at Kai. He stared back drolly. "Come on, _she_ wants to kill people, _we_ want to kill people."

"We don't need her." He said plainly.

"Of course we don't _need_ her," Bonnie agreed, ignoring the disgruntled snort Caroline made, "But it could be fun."

"You're assuming I'll even want to be on board with whatever's going on here." Bonnie looked back at her.

"I know you Caroline, and with us, even like this, we still complement each other, there's no denying that."

"There's some denying." Caroline hedged. Bonnie laughed softly.

"Whatever, it was an idea." Stepping around her, "Come on Kai." The warlock fell into step quickly with her while the vampire looked after them. "Enjoy boredom, blondie." Bonnie called out over her shoulder.

* * *

"He looks like shit." Bonnie murmured. Kai looked up from the grimoire he had in his hands at Bonnie, watching her gaze traipse over the vampire.

"He should," The warlock went back to reading, "You've been bleeding him for several hours now." The witch sauntered across her grandmother's living room to the wooden chair that was placed dead centre. Damon was bound to it with magic, and his skin was sallow and peppered with perspiration. He really _did_ look like shit.

She gripped his chin to stop his head from lolling about and narrowed her eyes as she waited for him to open his. When he did she was smiling. That same, depraved smile that pulled her face at odd angles, like she was baring her teeth. She leaned down to him and tightened her grip, making him wince.

"It's weird," she said to no one in particular, "Everything I felt about him is completely gone." Dragging her nails over his jaw, they scraped his skin before her fingers left his face. She inhaled sharply and clenched fists, standing upright.

"It's not gone." Kai closed the book and walked over to them. "It's just not what it _was_."

"Well what it is, is a blinding urge to flay him alive." The want was echoed in her eyes, their stark jade swirling around the pupil with the promise of vengeance. "It's making my _skin crawl_." Bonnie's eyes closed as if the thought alone brought her discomfort. It called to something in Kai. Something he'd slaughtered years ago as well. He blinked it away and straightened his spine.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to keep it under control while I'm gone?" Her eyes snapped open at the mention of his departure.

"How long are you leaving for?" Bonnie stepped into his space. She always seemed to be doing that. He'd seen it countless times between her and Damon, he didn't know the vampire had ever gotten used to it. Come to think of it, and speaking from personal experience – he doubted Damon ever really had. Everything about Bonnie before promised love and loyalty; this version now was a promise of malice and bloodshed. Both were things Kai found himself fascinated by, but looking at her now; he preferred this version, could understand and communicate with it without the infuriating factors of her martyrdom and honourable tactics. He'd go so far as to say that he _liked_ her like this, beyond the realm of what he had planned for this world. "You can't leave me alone here with him for too long," she went on. "I'll pop his head off just for something to do."

"Think of it as an exercise," he replied with a small smile on his lips. "Keep Damon alive and first thing tomorrow morning you get to pick who we kill." Her eyes lit up like the fourth of July.

"Promise?" She asked.

" _Promise_." Grinning at him she conceded with a dramatic sigh, shooting a sly glance at him before plopping onto the couch in front of the horrified vampire. "He's going to try and get into your head you know." Kai said. Bonnie craned her neck to look over her shoulder at him.

"There's no one to talk to in there." She said and Kai was confident in the hollowness reflected in her expression as she reaffirmed what he already knew. Reaffirmed what he'd put so perfectly in place.

"One hour, and I'll be back." A final nod and she turned back to look at Damon who'd done nothing but keep his eyes on her. Kai left to retrieve what they needed for the second step of their plan, assured that nothing would fall out of place in the wake of his departure. "Don't miss me too much." He laughed, clicking the door shut behind him.

"Wh," a blob of blood and useless air interrupted Damon's words and he coughed violently for a good few seconds while Bonnie frowned at him, pulling a face at his state. "What. Did, he _do_ to you?"

"He said he 'fixed' me." She answered. "But it's more than that."

"Did…did he hurt you?" She considered the question for a moment.

"Yes. Quite a bit actually," her gaze roamed up an over him as she thought about it, "He wasn't the only who thought he was going to kill me instead of getting what he wanted."

"Bonnie, I'm sorry, I –" a sharp pain blossomed in his chest and his back arched under the pain of the sudden attack. She shushed him with an annoyed hiss, like he was being purposefully disruptful.

"I'm so sick of your screaming, aren't you?" She chastised, "If it wasn't for the silencing spell I'm sure someone would have called the police by now."

"What did he _do_ to you?" Damon snarled.

"Rewired my mind through our magic," Damon's own mind lingered on the word 'our', "Everything I loved I now hate, everything I hated, I now love, he reversed it all."

"Is that why you're doing this to me?" Damon stammered. "…Because you love me?" Her glare was terrifying and he swallowed back the bile bubbling up his throat. She'd twisted his insides, wrung him out with her power, he didn't know how much longer he'd even be coherent.

"We both know how I felt." She said blandly. "I guess," she snorted softly then, her eyes alight with mischief, "I guess now I'm not the only one who'd going to suffer for it."

"… _Bonnie_ , wait –" But it was too late, his vision went black. The sick sound of his neck snapping relieved her somewhat. It didn't do much to sate the raging urges of violence inside of her, but she figured it would be easier to pass the time if he wasn't antagonising her. She leant back in her seat and thought back to when it was just the two of them. Or, when that's how they thought it was at least. One night in particular stood out the way it always did.

The night Damon kissed her. The night she kissed him back. The night he lifted her into his arms and slammed her back up against a wall and put good use to every ounce of frustration and helplessness they'd been feeling trapped in that alternate universe. Too late Bonnie realised she'd been running her fingers across her bottom lip. She stilled the motion and yanked her hand away. The fire that fanned out over her chest at the memory was the exact opposite of the fire Damon had brought out of her then. This fire was shot through with the kind of electricity that brought the dead back to life. That drained the world of its colours and was punctuated by a bolt of lightning. This fire consumed even the bones of its victims and she was staring at one of them now. She hated him.

She hated him more than she ever thought possible.

And it was only a matter of time before she sent him off into a true Oblivion.

* * *

 **Stay Excellent**


	3. Chapter 3

**Note** : Two, three years? That sounds like me. But this story is fun, so hey, why not. Unedited, because that's the only way I know how.

All aboard to flashback-city for some much needed Bamon context! XO

* * *

 **Chapter Three: Conversion**

The first time Damon kissed Bonnie, she'd been crying.

She'd taken to sleeping in his room since he frequented every room besides his so-called sanctuary. She reasoned that the bedding was smoother than silk and the thick curtains absorbed the painful, repetitive, early May morning light. That, and it was the furthest thing from her memories of her home.

She'd rarely found herself upstairs of the Salvatore Boarding House when they were still alive, let alone the four poster bed she was currently splayed across - and she took comfort in that fact. Seeing any more anecdotal evidence of her human and not-so-human life would snap her sanity in half.

That thick, tightening of her throat, a sensation she'd known her whole life, was brewing once again and she didn't know if she could cry quietly anymore. When she took the crumbling of the Other Side on her shoulders she thought that she'd finally be free of herself, her life. That death would be kind enough to meet her and end her sentence in this Purgatory of her existence.

But. No such luck.

Because there she lay, in Damon Salvatore's bed. In an alternate universe where it was just them and they were caught up in what seemed to be revealing itself as an unending day. He was in the den somewhere, re-reading _Call of the Wild_ , or finishing the same bottle of whiskey he'd been drinking since the gist of their situation had dawned on them.

Bonnie didn't care about Damon as she lay in his bed; she couldn't. There was no space for his concerns too, she could admit that at least to herself. The little room she had left after all the questions was hoarded up by her building hysteria. How did she not know any better by now? People like her had only ever learned to spell reprieve; never experienced it. Standing to her feet, she approached Damon's mirror with a world of hesitation lagging her soft footfalls.

Her chest continued to coil in on itself as she wiped at her silent tears. When she met her own gaze she winced at her reflection. Her shabby hair, her watery eyes, runny nose and oversized clothing. She was a mess.

"I don't know what's worse," she said to herself, "The fact that the odds of you dying here are more likely than you ever seeing anyone but Damon again or the fact that you probably wouldn't know how to live if you'd survived the implosion to begin with."

She'd taken to talking to herself instead of Damon over the last few days after they'd reached somewhat of a stalemate during one night of board games and whiskey.

 _"That's cheating!"_

 _"Is it cheating if I just saved the Netherworld from what was bound to be the most dragged out game of Monopoly of all time?"_

 _"Yes Damon," Bonnie rolled her eyes as she grabbed at her tumbler of whiskey, "yes it is."_

 _"You're no fun."_

 _"Then go play by yourself."_

 _"And have my senses heighten even more around you when you're menstruating? Yeah, I'll pass."_

 _"I'm not menstruating."_

 _"So you've just been consistently bleeding for the last three days?"_

 _"Three days? Damon. I'm not bleeding. In any shape or form."_

 _"Then why is your smell on everything?" He yelled._

 _"One. Don't scream at me about my scent, when you've basically doused this house in your overpriced cologne." She tilted her head. "I ate a slice of toast the other day that literally tasted like I'd used the cologne instead of strawberry jam."_

 _"I was trying to counteract your smell!" The vampire defended._

 _"Well, it clearly isn't working so can you stop?"_

 _"Can YOU?" He swung his arms out and ghosted himself away, leaving her frowning in his absence._

Bonnie was still staring at her reflection when her nose began to bleed.

Grunting under the surprising and sudden pressure that was squeezing her brain together, she crumpled to her knees and gripped at her head. She'd had these aches before, as a fledgling witch, and would have been getting her hopes up if the pain hadn't tripled. Crying out, her tears returned as she hit the floor and lay gasping for air as she tried to focus her vision on the ceiling.

"You know, the next time you deny these nightmares-" his snarking died on his lips when he saw her seizing. "Jesus, Bonnie, you can call for help you know?"

"I was trying to - access, m-my mag-ic, I"

"Less talking, more drinking of vampire blood, okay?" She let her mouth fall open as he lifted his wrist to her lips. Once the seizing had quit, she realised that he was still holding her and that her eyes had finally swam back into focus.

"I'm fine." She muttered, and pulled herself free of him.

"Sure." He quipped, his voice low and wary. "I mean, you _look_ fine."

"I don't look fine." She bit back.

"Nope." He agreed popping the sound of the 'p'. "I haven't seen you look like this since your gra-"

"Say one thing about Grams and I will stake you." She could feel the tears still in her eyes, adding a gleam to her warning.

"Taboo topic. Got it."

"I don't want to talk tonight Damon, or ever, actually. Not with you. Literally _anyone_ but you right now would be so, SO great."

"We don't have to talk." He offered and she slit her eyes at him. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I don't care what you meant."

"Yeah you do."

"In fact I don't, so if you could see yourself out?" He shut the door and turned back to face her, crossing his arms. "Brilliant." She muttered under her breath. "What do you want?"

"Why were you crying?"

"None of your business."

"It's plenty of my business." He argued, "What if, in a cruel twist of fate, you and I were in fact the only people that survived and it is up to us to reboot the supernatural and natural world?"

"Then I would work on my powers until I could manifest that into being before I let you ever lay a finger on me again."

"What if...this was an episode of _Black Mirror_ and the only way to return to your real life was to fall in love with me, the same person who made you question everything you knew about yourself and your life and the people in it."

"You're giving yourself a little too much credit there, Stefan was the first vampire I ever saw as something other than a vampire."

"Of course-"

"What? You're the only one allowed to play this game?" She sniffled as she wiped at her tears. "I don't have my _powers_ anymore Damon. I don't know how I got here, or how you got here with me. Which _is_ what happened. Spare me your vampire conjectures. Magic made you too, not the other way around, we're here because of me, or at the very least my kind." He held up his hands in defeat while she blazed on, "And no. Hell to the _fucking no_ are you going to try and seek comfort by shittily flirting with me so you can have a moment's peace from missing my best friend. Touch me and I will gut you."

"Who said the flirting was about Elena?" He asked after a beat.

"When is anything that animates you _not_ about Elena?" Bonnie spat back.

"Says the girl who killed herself over the likes of _Jeremy_."

"Says the vampire who fucked his brother's girlfriend after Stefan left town to _protect_ you."

"Says the all-powerful-Bennett-witch who couldn't even grasp magic well enough to keep her _grandmother_ alive." A long beat of silence followed.

Bonnie was screaming and running at him before she knew what was really happening.

"Fuck you!" She yelled, while she hit at him over and over. "Fuck _you_ , fuck _Stefan_ , fuck _Katherine_ , _Klaus_ , _Elijah_ , my _mother for leaving_ , fuck _Jeremy_ and _FUCK Elena_!" She pushed herself away from him, chest heaving, still crying. "Fuck all of you..."

"Bonnie-"

"Shut _up_ , Damon!" She yelled. "Stop talking. It's bad enough that I may be stuck here for however long eternity turns out to be, but I'll be damned if I spend every waking minute of it rehashing my pointless little life for your amusement."

"Do I look amused?"

"What then?" Her eyes darkened as she smiled bitterly. "Do you _finally_ care? It took all that, it took us getting all the way _here_ \- to this moment for you to fucking _care_ about me!?" She kicked at his one nightstand and hissed as the pain shot up her leg. Damon's hands were around her waist. "Damon, let go!"

"Bonnie, stop, I think you're-"

" _Damon_!" Her voice cracked as her hysteria tipped over. The next thing she knew she was a crying ball in his arms as he lifted her back up from where she'd been flailing against him.

"Ssh, ssh, I'm not gonna do anything, I'm just going down to the den so I can fix you something to drink and start a fire or something." She could hardly hear him over the sound of her crying. It was about an hour later, and he'd given up trying to start a fire because she would cling to him tighter when he tried to move out from under her. She had burrowed herself into the crook of his neck and was refusing to budge. It dawned on him after some time that she was probably embarrassed. So, he decided to get some things off of his chest while he had the chance.

"Do you know that I actually met you first when I came back to Mystic Falls? Yeah," he went on talking to himself, "I don't think you'd come into your powers yet, because I compelled you to forget me, and you did." He adjusted her weight on his lap, "We spoke about everything, the same way we do now, and you even scolded me a couple of times. Classic Bonnie." She could hear the smile in his voice. "I told you about Katherine, and I swear to god, that was the same night you perfected your signature side eye." He looked down at where she stayed, the only sign she was listening at all was how her body would tense every so often as he shifted. "You knew me so well by the end of our conversation, and that terrified me. I was about to kill you...you know what I'm like... then I looked you right in the eye and do you know what you said?"

"...What?" She muttered, glad her voice was muffled to hide her interest.

"You said, 'Do you know what, Damon? People would really like you more if you got on with yourself better and stopped self-sabotaging into the role of the villain.'" And then you laughed at the expression on my face. "You're not the villain Damon, because villains aren't real. They're a perspective. You need a new hobby."

"I said that?" She peaked up at him.

"Right?" Damon scoffed. "How annoying are you?"

"And then you compelled me." She sighed, looking at his chest.

"I had to." She frowned and looked back up at him. "I damn near fell in love with you then and there. But, I wanted Katherine more than anything I thought I could have seen myself having with you. So...yeah. Fast forward to now. How many years later, I finally get to tell you how we really met."

"...Well you would have been a paedophile." Bonnie mused after a long while. She looked up at him and chuckled. "Sorry, I just - I don't know what to say."

"There's nothing to say. I took one look at you, I saw this bright, beautiful creature in front of me, and at first I thought I couldn't stop staring because I didn't know whether I should kill her or love her and then, she sees right through me and I know...I know right in that instant. Someone like me, doesn't belong in the same narrative as someone like her. And I wasn't wrong. Look what your life has been like, just with me in it."

"I can't believe you fell in love with me." Bonnie murmured. "In your Katherine phase, too! That's huge. I'm putting it on my resume."

"I'm glad you have your sense of humour back."

"Just enough to feel like more of myself after that spectacular breakdown." She shifted upright and pulled him into a hug. "That's for falling in love with me, even for a second, when I thought I was at my least deserving."

"Sure." Damon smiled and nodded as she pulled away. Using the pad of his thumb to wipe a residual tear as they looked at one another. "And it was much longer than a second." Bonnie's green eyes locked in on him.

"We've never been this close to another while conscious."

"Unfortunately." Damon whispered, his voice gruff.

"Damon..."

"You'll gut me, I know."

"Good." Neither of them moved.

"On the other hand," she narrowed her eyes, "I wouldn't gut you if you kissed me. I have wondered what it would be like...for as long as I've known you."

"Now why would you say something like that?"

"We need to find something new to live for. If this can ever feel like living."

"Stop talking."

"Kiss...me?"

So she did. And it was epic.

* * *

"I'm so proud of you, little Bonster." Damon awoke to the sound of Kai's evil cackling. "And because you were so good, I brought back two gifts for you." Damon could only watch as he led Caroline in, and her off-kilter smiling turning to a grin as she dragged Jeremy in after her. "Oh man, this is going to be so so fun!" Kai squealed and then locked eyes with Damon. "Don't you think?"

* * *

 **Note:** Oh wow. So, yeah. I still write. I got a new house, a new dog, a new job (two, actually) and not that anyone asked but I'm the happiest I've been in a while. And, I hope you are too.

Stay excellent.


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